Who "really" Sent the Star? ?

[Bible Speaks]

 9 "But the lawless one’s presence is by the operation of Satan with every powerful work and lying signs and wonders."
(2 Thess.2:9)

Who were the Magi that visited the young child Jesus?

Astrologers (Gr., maʹgoi; “Magi,” AS ftn, CC, We; “Magians,” ED) brought gifts to the young child Jesus. (Mt 2:1-16) 

Commenting on who these maʹgoi were, The Imperial Bible-Dictionary (Vol. II, p. 139) says: “According to Herodotus the magi were a tribe of the Medes [I, 101], who professed to interpret dreams, and had the official charge of sacred rites . . . they were, in short, the learned and priestly class, and having, as was supposed, the skill of deriving from books and the observation of the stars a supernatural insight into coming events . . . Later investigations tend rather to make Babylon than Media and Persia the centre of full-blown magianism. ‘

Originally, the Median priests were not called magi . . . From the Chaldeans, however, they received the name of magi for their priestly caste, and it is thus we are to explain what Herodotus says of the magi being a Median tribe’ . . . (J. C. Müller in Herzog’s Encl.).”—Edited by P. Fairbairn, London, 1874.

Rightly, then, Justin Martyr, Origen, and Tertullian, when reading Matthew 2:1, thought of maʹgoi as astrologers. Wrote Tertullian (“On Idolatry,” IX): “We know the mutual alliance of magic and astrology. The interpreters of the stars, then, were the first . . . to present Him [Jesus] ‘gifts.’” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, 1957, Vol. III, p. 65) The name Magi became current “as a generic term for astrologers in the East.”—The New Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia, 1952, Vol. 22, p. 8076.

So the circumstantial evidence is strong that the maʹgoi who visited the infant Jesus were astrologers. Thus The New Testament translated by C. B. Williams reads “star-gazers,” with a footnote in explanation: “This is, students of stars in relation to events on earth.” Fittingly, then, modern English translations read “astrologers” at Matthew 2:1.—AT, NE, NW, Ph.

How many of these astrologers “from eastern parts” brought “gold and frankincense and myrrh” to the child Jesus is not disclosed; there is no factual basis for the traditional notion that there were three. (Mt 2:1, 11) 

As astrologers, they were servants of false gods and were, wittingly or unwittingly, led by what appeared to them as a moving “star.” They alerted Herod to the fact that the “king of the Jews” had been born, and Herod, in turn, sought to have Jesus killed. The plot, however, failed. Jehovah intervened and proved superior to the demon gods of the astrologers, so instead of returning to Herod, the astrologers headed home another way after being given “divine warning in a dream.”—Mt 2:2, 12.
http://m.wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1200000448#h=9:0-10:218

[Jim63]

It is not surprising that Satan and his demon associates could manifest a visible point of light in order to deceive / trick humans in to believing something. Consider the whole U.F.O. matter in our world today. There is NEVER any especially detailed images (other than faked pictures). Many of the descriptions or supposed videos are merely "points of light" moving around in the sky.

[John Lindsay Barltrop]

The photograph below is of the vast flat Hay Plains in western New South Wales. I can remember one night whilst return from leave when I was in the Royal Australian Navy (in the late 50's), we ran out of petrol about 6 kilometres from the town of Hay. It was about 0400 and there was overcast conditions, pitch black and two of us decided to walk into Hay to get some petrol.

We were not too long into our trek when we saw this strange light approach us from out in the scrub and when it got quite close, it suddenly shot off to the horizon and slowly started to make its way back. It did this about half a dozen times, to say the least we were not afraid.......we were terrified (we were only about 17). Anyhow about a kilometre later we came across a farm house and the farmer helped us out with our petrol problem. We told him of our experience with this "UFO"..........he told us that, what it was, was under certain atmospheric conditions lights from cars in the Blue Mountains (a couple of hundred miles away) are reflected/refracted causing this phenomenon, it was evidently fairly common - I dot not know whether this till occurs, it may not because of the increase in light pollution over the many years since this occurred (that is my guess). 

The Hay Plains- you can almost see the curvature of the earth it is so flat and for the most part treeless.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ann O'Maly]

Quote

As astrologers, they were servants of false gods and were, wittingly or unwittingly, led by what appeared to them as a moving “star.” They alerted Herod to the fact that the “king of the Jews” had been born, and Herod, in turn, sought to have Jesus killed. The plot, however, failed. Jehovah intervened and proved superior to the demon gods of the astrologers, so instead of returning to Herod, the astrologers headed home another way after being given “divine warning in a dream.”—Mt 2:2, 12.
http://m.wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1200000448#h=9:0-10:218

Daniel was made the chief of the Magians (Dan. 2:48) but he isn't considered worshipper of false gods. The motive of the 'wise men' was a benevolent one - to pay homage to the new Jewish king and give him valuable gifts fit for his royal status (which evidently helped save Jesus' life later on). One of the points of Matthew's account is to contrast the attitude of prominent Gentiles (who may have had little knowledge of God's ways but went to great effort and expense to show their respects and generosity toward God's son) with that of the hostile Jewish establishment.

To attribute the appearance of the star to the Devil is jumping to conclusions - there could be various alternative explanations and many hypotheses have been offered, including one that has God being behind the star. It has to be noted that the evil in this story is placed squarely on Herod alone.

[Bible Speaks]